So Ive been interested in picking up a new synth. A couple of contenders are the roland Juno 60, sci prophet 600 and the korg poly6/monopoly. I know the korg m/p only has 4 voices but it sounds like a beast. So if you had to choose one which one would you go for and if you have a monopoly tell me how sick it is. Automatic Gainsay, your youtube vids are unhealthy man, they are too awesome.

The Mono/Poly is the most exciting of the synths you mentioned. Second the awesome modulation. I never use it as a polyphonic synth, although the limitations in its VCA design make it unique when doing so.

What's really exciting is not just that the synth has four VCOs, but that they can be arranged in pairs when using sync and Xmod (all, of course, with control over shape, octave and fine tuning). In this configuration, VCO1 is the master for VCO2, and 3 is the master for 4. This allows you to make some neat, perceptibly bi-timbral sounds if you should desire, but my preferred use of this arrangement is in conjunction with the arpeggiator. One really neat thing about the arp is that you can of course cycle through notes of enormous four oscillator sounds, but if you switch to the poly mode while the arp in engaged, it will cycle through each VCO independently. This is great for things like combining footings and varying octave ranges to get unpredictable "spacey" sounds, and it is also useful to turn the VCO level down for various steps to get a 'sequence' with rests. BUT if you use the Sync, XMod, or the combination of the two with the notes cycling independently in poly mode, you will get alternating steps of clean sounds and nasty modulated or synced sounds. And by the way, you can adjust the LFO to modulate the frequency of all VCOs or just the slaves.

Here's what it sounds like in english:

beep-kkkrakakak-zap-brrrrrrrr

over and over again. With four VCOs, the pattern length will be 4 steps, but use the full octave range of the arp (3 usually) and the sequence will repeat less often. I don't know... I should just start making youtube videos for this synth because it is one of my favorite monos.

Hey I'm new here and I'm drunk (schools is canceled tomorrow). but they are pretty sick. The monopoly has so many feature and option and the four vco thing is sick. I would definitely love to have six voices but I think the four would be enough. Anyone want to sell one? What do you guys think is a good price for this guy. I guess what would be the cutoff price?

Average is like mid $800 to somewhere in the $900's. Cutoff price is whatever you are willing to pay. Any synth would have to be in really nice shape(functional/physically) for me to want to pay over the average if that is what the seller is asking.

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synthnoob wrote:So Ive been interested in picking up a new synth. A couple of contenders are the roland Juno 60, sci prophet 600 and the korg poly6/monopoly. I know the korg m/p only has 4 voices but it sounds like a beast. So if you had to choose one which one would you go for and if you have a monopoly tell me how sick it is. Automatic Gainsay, your youtube vids are unhealthy man, they are too awesome.

Thank you, and thank you for watching!

Yeah, I would go with the MonoPoly amongst those. They polyphony is not going to be like the Juno or the Polysix, but the rest of the features are worth it.

‎"I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." -Charles Babbage"Unity and Mediocrity are forever in bed together." -Zane W. http://www.youtube.com/automaticgainsay

The mono/poly is a killer machine, especially for crazy sounds, leads and pretty drone stuff. I just posted a Mono/poly demo in the listening lounge in case you fancy hearing some of the things it can do.

here's a quick question, in mono mode, do you have to use all the oscs at once, ie unison? or can you do 1 osc monophonic basses on it? or maybe 2 oscs tuned an octave apart, i really like analogue saw wave basses that sound like that.

elmosexwhistle wrote:here's a quick question, in mono mode, do you have to use all the oscs at once, ie unison? or can you do 1 osc monophonic basses on it? or maybe 2 oscs tuned an octave apart, i really like analogue saw wave basses that sound like that.

Each osc. has its own volume and octave knob (16'- 8'- 4'- 2') so you can do both those things. =)

Ah, the Mono/Poly, my nemesynth. I've tried to buy one three times and either had to cough up the money do to losing a job, buying a car or a house. Then over three years ago I finally bought one but it arrived broken. Some things just aren't meant to be, I guess.

Sorry to go aagainst the flow, but I'd choose a Juno over the Mono/poly any day. Because I find the Juno much more useful and musical. The Mono/poly to me is too wierd. I don't think it's even good for bass really - probably a lack of snappy envelopes or something. Sure it looks great - lotsa knobs and oscillators and so on. But it's a rather one off synth design for good reason - not easy to put it to good use. The Juno is the opposite - makes incredible use of rather restricted synth archetecture. The Mono/poly seems desirable, but who ever took one on tour? Also I don't think many were made/sold - so you're looking at some high prices. So my advise is to go for something less flashy and more useful - especially if this is an early purchase in your well founded analogue desires.

"On the following day , the sorcery undespairingly continued: I changed my series, chose other sequences, cut other lengths, spliced different progressions, and hoped afresh for a miracle in sound." (Stockhausen)

That's a good point; you should consider your desires from each of these products. If you want deeper experimental capabilities, go for the Mono/Poly. If you want a machine more practically suited for building songs, a Juno would be a better choice.

I will say that I find both synths can belong to either category, however. In a musical context I will use the Juno I have (a 106) mainly for pads and other polyphonic sounds, but have used basses from it because I do find them useful. The Mono/Poly to me is mainly a lead machine, but the basses it can produce are also excellent, though not Moog style. It sounds distinctly Korg.

I wouldn't buy the monopoly as a poly-synth. Not because of only 4 voices. It feels more like a mono-synth to me. The CS50 has 4 voices as well, and it feels more like a poly-synth to me. If you need poly go for the other ones. I had a monopoly and liked it a lot, and if I can I'll buy another one, as a mono-synth. The Junos are great, easy to get good sounds, with a very tight arpeggiator, but have DCOs. The P600 steps the filter resonance, and that's annoying to me. I don't have experience with the polysix. I know you have to be careful about the leaking battery problem. If you dont mind only 4 voices and want poly the CS50 is worth a listen. The ring modulator is sick! Good luck!